NIKOLAY KURILOV – THE SINGER OF THE YUKAGHIR LANDT
he multifaceted works created by Nikolay Nikolayevich
Kurilov, the Yukaghir artist, poet and prosaic, publicist
and public figure, permeated with reverent love for the
tundra and its people, a sense of duty and responsibility
for the present and the future of the Yukaghir people. History and
culture of the Yukaghirs enjoy a commanding position in Kurilov’s
creative work. He begins his book "The Yukaghirs: Unsolved mystery
of humanity" with an epigraph: "Dedicated to the ancient Yukaghirs,
fathers and mothers, who created and saved the language, culture and
traditions of the ethnic group until today's times as
well as the modern Yukaghirs that the ethnic group
may cease to exist with."
Zinaida Ivanova-Unarova, Art historian, Professor, the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Art,
The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk
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The Arctic Heritage

In the XIX-th century, the term of
"endangered ethnic group" was assigned to
the Yukaghirs because of their small size,
although traces of material and spiritual
culture of the Yukaghirs are traced over
large areas of the Arctic. Since the late
XX century, the stage of the Yukaghir
culture Renaissance has begun. First of all,
that was, thanks to the Kurilov brothers
– Semyon, Gavril, and Nikolay, whose
activity in the field of literature, science,
and art aroused widespread interest in
the people whose origin is still a mystery
unsolved to the end. The brothers assumed
responsibility for the fate of the people, for
their revival, for which it was necessary
to begin with the study and preservation
of the language, cultural traditions and
arts. The novel "Khanido and Khalerkha"
by Semyon Kurilov translated into many
languages, scientific and literary works
of Gavril Nikolayevich Kurilov, Doctor
of Philology, also known as a poet named
Uluro Ado, and creative work of Nikolay
Kurilov laid the foundation for the spiritual
renewal of the people whose heritage forms
a separate stratum of unique Arctic culture.
The first book of poems by Nikolay
Kurilov "Tundra Flowers" was published in
1982. To date, more than 30 books of poetry
and stories for children have been published.
Radio broadcasting "Gevan" is very popular
in the languages of indigenous peoples of
the North, which is hosted by Kurilov as a
speaker and as a correspondent. In October
2014, for the first time in the history of the
world the Theater of Young Spectators in
Yakutsk produced a full-scale performance
in the Yukaghir language according to
Nikolay Kurilov’s scenario based on the
legend "Nunni." When Nikolay is asked,
referring to his many-sided activity, "Who
do you think you are first and foremost,"
he answers "I had a childhood dream to
become an artist." The artist was born on
June 11, 1949 in Olersk tundra in Maloye
Uluro, now the village of Andryushkino,
Nizhnekolymsky Ulus of Yakutia. He grew
up in the tundra, and until the age of 18
he had been wandering following reindeer
with his mother and stepfather, Gavril
Tretyakov, hereditary reindeer herders
and fishermen. On his graphic sheets,
applications, and paintings, he conveys the
world of his own feelings and emotions.
You can create an artist’s biography
through his works of different years.
"My drawings are the marks of my life
wanderings", — says the artist. In the
tundra, material is always at hand: white
snow in winter, malleable clay in summer.
Further he recalls: "I remember lying in
the children's sled anibe, and my mother
was walking around. I jumped down from
the anibe and quickly drew a likeness of
two reindeer, a little man (that's me), and
my mom, and catch the sled moving away
slowly." These words are illustrated with
the sheet "With my Mom on the Tundra".
A toddler is sitting in a sled, his mother is
stepping forward.
In the autobiographical monotype "My
Family", your attention is attracted by
the portrait of the mother, placed in the
center of the composition as the axis of the
family, around which the artist’s memories
are strung. The top row shows his relatives
who are dead, whose souls are dwelling in
the dark starry sky: in the right corner his
father, shaman Mikalay Kurilov, is sitting
with a tambourine in his hands, with a
mallet at his feet, and on the left, the figures
of his two sisters and his brother, Semyon,
are frozen next to the stars. Below, on the
warm earth lighted with a pink sunset,
his mother is watching children and deer.
A letter of appeal to his mother is also
placed here: "Dear Mom, you bequeathed
us the native language and traditions.
We, the reindeer people fed by you, and
there are the three of us remembering you
now, and we are determined to keep our
ancient language on this earth." These
written in English words surprise those
who do not know the origin of the work.
It was created in 1994, when three artists,
Vasiliy Parnikov, Fyodor Markov, and
Nikolay Kurilov, at the invitation of
the Center for International Rights and
Development of Indigenous Peoples were
touring through the Indian villages and five
American states. In Santa Fe, artist Jean
Lamar captivated them with the monotype
technique. Kurilov’s monotype turned out
to be unconventional as he used his unique
technique: application, drawing with a
pencil and ballpoint pen. The origins of
creativity of Nikolay (Mikalay Kurilue) go
back to the mother tundra breastfeeding
The Dance of Reindeer.1987. Paper, application.
The Arctic Heritage
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her reindeer children, blazing with late
autumn colors, and covering herself with a
snow patterned cloth in winter. Kurilov’s
father and grandfather were shamans. His
father died when little Mikalai was two
years old. But what if it was the shaman
restless spirit and moments of creative
insight that he had left as a legacy to his
sons? The figure of his mother, Anna
Vasilyevna, runs through the entire artist's
creativity as a leitmotif. She was not only
a wise adviser for her grown-up sons, but
also a fount of folk philosophy, a keeper
of ancient traditions, songs, and legends.
No wonder that she living in the Kolyma
village of Andryushkino was visited by
the researchers of Yukaghir culture from
different cities and even from abroad, they
recorded her songs and tales. In 2012,
the book by Nikolay Kurilov “Stories by
Mother Anna Kurilova" was issued in the
Netherlands in the Yukaghir, Russian and
English languages, published on the project
of the University of Amsterdam at the
initiative of Sessilia Odeh, a researcher of
the Yukaghir language. Kuriklov received
professional education at the Krasnoyarsk
Art School, from which he finished in
1975. The artist remembers with gratitude
the name of his teacher, Oleg Yuryevich
Yakhnin, who helped him find his own
way in art. A young teacher, a graduate
of the I.E. Repin Institute of Painting,
Sculpture and Architecture, Yakhnin took
notice of his pupil’s particular talents and
tried not to bind him by the canons of the
academic art program. After graduating
from the art school, Kurilov for some
time worked in schools of Srednekolymsk
and Andryushkino, continuing to paint
and write poetry. Since 1976, he has
participated in zonal and republican
exhibitions and joined the ranks of the
Union of Artists of Russia. The master
wields the diverse graphic techniques:
lithography, etching, ink, and watercolor.
However, his unmistakable hand shows
up particularly clearly in applications of
black, white and colored paper that go
back to the traditions of the northern
peoples who created elegant clothes from
pieces of fur and leather. The artist cuts out
characteristic silhouettes and ultrafine,
hair-like lines. He masterfully draws with
a pencil and ballpoint pen. His drawings
cannot be called other than jewelry.
For the Russian edition of the monograph
by V. Jochelson "The Yukaghir and
Yukaghirized Tungus", the artist copied
the pictures from the English original with
photographic accuracy. He is just a very
delicate, working with oil on canvas. As
he says in his poetry: "I cannot fall asleep
because of the beauty – of this wonderful
and gentle land – I’m not going to take
a broad brush – flat will be the tundra
landscape – with a fine brush I’ll scatter
flowers on it – and then no one will forget
my homeland." The technique of the artist
is so that it involuntarily recalls ancient
birch bark letters and drawings of the
Yukaghirs, although the artist acquainted
himself with them much later than he had
started his first applications. He builds
Across the Tundra with Mum. 1991. Paper, ballpointpen
The Arctic Heritage
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Arctic Art & Culture • June• 201555

the paper space on the same plane, with
no plans or perspective that is usual for
academic art, using the soft round lines
and silhouettes. Everything in nature is
alive and dynamic. The many-eyed tundra
with shaggy eyelashes of round bumps is
watching from the sheet "Owls Mousing."
A man has thrown the maut (lasso) on
the horns of a reindeer in the corral. The
reindeer is swaying to the rhythm of a slow
circular dance seedye – just a moment,
and the reindeer is going to start running
madly around. The artist often resorts to
the symbolism of shapes – a circle and a
spiral. The circle is seen as a metaphor
of the tundra, the spiral as the passage of
time, cyclical rhythms of the year. Another
source of the artist’s inspiration is legends
and myths of his people. The basis of the
painting "Mount Albay" is a legend of a
poor orphan girl, who was kicked out of
the house in freezing weather to get some
water. The Moon took the unfortunate
girl to heaven. The skyline separates the
composition into two parts. At the foot
of the mountain there is the winter camp,
where a common life on earth running,
beautifully sparkling snow. In the sky
a parallel world is reflected, the heaven
reindeer are grazing. In the center of the
full Moon, a silhouette of the girl carrying
two buckets on the yokes is visible. The
subjects of works and artistic technique
of Kurilov are diverse. The festive beauty
of the tundra pleases with multicolored
patterns in a series of applications "An
Artist in the Tundra", "Beautiful Curtains."
His concern for the ecological disaster in
the tundra resulted in the triptych "Yellow
Death" and the application "Shattered
World". From the circle and the spiral, he
naturally turns to abstract compositions,
such as "The Dance of the Shaman", using
a symbolic language. The metaphor of a
free flight is represented by the sheet "Like
the White Swans", depicting boats floating
on the sea, lined up like flocks of birds.
The inner perception of the outside world
and its visual representation in Kurilov’s
art shows similarities with the art of
the Northern Arctic, particularly with
graphics of Canadian artists. The illusory
three-dimensional space is constructed
according to the laws of linear and reverse
perspective. The leading role of a silhouette
and lines, a "cosmic" view of space, surface
flatness, peculiarity of rhythmics and
emotional expression are the basis of the
artistic style of graphics of the Arctic. The
thousand-year culture of the circumpolar
world, whether mythological images and
subjects, pictographic writings or rock
paintings, all together it becomes a part of
the overall picture of the modern world.
The art of Yukaghir artist Nikolay Kurilov
with its own unique style and "not with a
common expression on his face" enriches
the contemporary Arctic art.
Like White Swans. 2008. Paper, application
The Shattered World. 2008. The National Art Museum of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)
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Arctic Art & Culture • June• 201555

GNARL MAGICGnarl is an outgrowth on a tree trunk, the fibers of which form a
disordered structure, chaotically meandering, producing intricate
patterns and loops on the cut. Gnarl wood with high decorative
qualities is often used in the manufacture of knife handles.
We met one of the renowned folk masters of decorative
and applied arts of the Russian Federation in March 2015 at
the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society in St.
Petersburg.
The amazing works of Oleg Pavlovich attracted the attention
of many visitors including ourselves. Nadezhda Harlampyeva, the
publishing editor of magazine "The Arctic Art and Culture", spoke
to Oleg Pavlovich.
— How did your passion, burl carving, begin?— Since childhood, I have loved to draw and model in plasticine, I
was very good at making animals. It turned into a hobby, then into
my profession.
D
oes the word gnarl say anything
to you? No?
And the word burl? Yes, this is
an outgrowth on a tree trunk.
With such fragmentary knowledge we enter the
mysterious world of folk artists.
The Arctic Heritage
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Arctic Art & Culture • June• 201557

GNARL MAGICGnarl is an outgrowth on a tree trunk, the fibers of which form a disordered structure, chaotically meandering, producing intricate patterns and loops on the cut. Gnarl wood with high decorative qualities is often used in the manufacture of knife handles.The Arctic Heritage
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Arctic Art & Culture • June• 201557

OLEG PAVLOVICH MAKHOV,
born on 04.06.1969, Syktyvkar, the Komi Republic.Education: Structural Architect.Since 1992, he has been engaged in
art processing of wood outgrowths:
burls and gnarls. Since 1992, he has
been a constant participant at re-
publican, regional, inter-regional, all-
Russian exhibitions, competitions,
and festivals.
Throughout 20 years, he has made
hundreds of works for customers of
different levels, including local au-
thority and administration, business
corporations, art galleries, museums,
and private collectors. At the same
time, every burl and gnarl product
is unique, both in form and texture.
With many customers, in particu-
lar, the Head of Government of the
Komi Republic, business relations are
maintained on continuing basis. Oleg
Makhov’s works, being valuable gifts
from the north of the republic, were
presented to presidents of Russia, Bo-
ris Nikolayevich Yeltsin and Vladimir
Vladimirovich Putin, politicians Vik-
tor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin and
Anatoly Borisovich Chubais. Works
were made for OJSC "Gazprom",
OJSC "Lukoil", OJSC "North-West
Telecom" (the branch of OJSC "Ros-
telecom"), OJSC "Komienergo", and
other major Russian companies.
Since 2002, he has become a mem-
ber of the Artists’ Union of the Komi
Republic; since 2004, he has become
People's Artist of Russia.
Source:http://kap-suvel.ru/master.htmlThe Arctic Heritage
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— Are there many burl artists in the Komi Republic?— Many are engaged in burl work. Komi’s best burl
artist is Vasiliy Vasilyevich Popov. He is a true bearer
of the burl carving tradition. He specializes in cups,
and I stick to a minimalist style. There are many
artists who learn how to cut images of animals and
people.
— And how do you refine applied art into a work of high art?— There was a case. Stage directors often buy my
works... People with a refined taste, who know
the price of the material, the cost of the artist’s
handmade work, his special world, are looking for
a masterpiece, something very unique. It is not easy
to make a masterpiece from burl and gnarl. We are
used to do what we can. Creating the unique work
of art requires a creative approach: a combination
of artistic perception based on the material that is
given to us by nature. It is necessary to come up
with an image to this material, and only then to get
down to work. I constantly study rough sketches
prepared in advance until I see the finished product
in my mind. Sometimes it happens like this: You
conceive one thing, but other images emerge in the
process, and you get a different product, sometimes
a surprisingly attractive one... The structure of the
material at times tells how to do it...
— How many products did you make in the total time of the creative work?— People often ask me about it. I did not count, but
I’m starting to think that I need to do this: to take
pictures and save types of certain works, keep record
of my participation at exhibitions and competitions.
I’ve never done this before, so it is hard for me to keep
count.
— Tell us, please, are there any professional groups of burl and gnarl carvers who share their experience learning from each other?— This mainly happens during festivals, competitions,
and different shows... From the biggest events of
the recent years, I especially remember two things.
First, a trip to Finland, where we participated in
an exhibition. And second, all-Russian exhibition
"Ladya" (boat), the largest one in applied arts and
crafts, was held in 2014 in Moscow. The point is I
participated at that time in a completely different
competition having nothing to do with that one.
It happened so that the organizers of "Ladya" saw
my works and suggested that I should immediately
participate in their exhibition. I agreed to. I'm glad
I was able to take part and win the first place in one
of the competitions. It is encouraging that there
is a rebirth of folk handicrafts, and a modern view
is being formed of the works of art from natural
material which is becoming a success. We, artists,
are certainly happy about that.
— As you rightly noted, there is a growing interest in works made by certain artists, i.e. hand -made products from natural materials. It is well known that due to the high cost of natural materials, the value of handmade works is increasing. How do you manage to continue your favourite occupation in such conditions?— Of course, burl and gnarl carving is not a
cheap occupation, and not so easy compared with
other creative work. I prepare all the material
personally, sometimes turn to other artists. So,
"The Artist of the Year" competition is annually
held in Syktyvkar, where we exchange views on
the development of folk handicrafts, including burl
artists. During these meetings we are able to agree
on the materials, workpieces, and tools to optimize
the process of creative activity that is so necessary
under the current conditions.
— Do you work to order?— I work on the realization of my ideas, and then it
goes of itself. Previously, someone liked my little
works, I gifted them, and then people began to make
orders. It depends.
— From whom do you receive orders?— Generally, from the leaders of the republic, city,
Komi’s tourist agencies, artists...